Rep. Kathleen Law offered the following concurrent resolution:

            House Concurrent Resolution No. 37.

            A concurrent resolution to memorialize Congress to support the National Cancer Institute's plan to eliminate suffering and death from cancer by the year 2015.

            Whereas, Each year more than 1.4 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer. One out of every two men and one out of every three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. In 1971 Congress began the battle against cancer with enactment of the National Cancer Act and creation of the National Cancer Institute within the National Institutes of Health. The foundation laid by their foresight puts the nation in position to aggressively enter the final stages of the fight against cancer. Sixty designated cancer research centers have been established across the country by the National Cancer Institute. These Centers have the capacity to share knowledge with each other and solve problems in real time through advances in computer technology as well as work collaboratively with researchers in other disciplines, such as engineering, to develop the technologies needed to fight cancer; and

            Whereas, Scientific research on the human genome and proteins have led to breakthroughs in our understanding of the molecular changes that cause cancer and differences between the same cancers in different patients. This understanding makes it possible to design therapies that target the cancer and bypass healthy tissues that will eliminate the suffering caused by collateral damage to normal tissues from chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Therapies can also be modified to account for the cancer's response to a given treatment in individual patients. Doctors believe it is within their grasp to cure or manage cancer similar to other chronic diseases that a person can live with and not necessarily die from; and

            Whereas, Concurrent advances in imaging technologies and knowledge networking mean scientists and doctors will be able to see and assess the impact of treatment within days and not have to wait months or years to know the outcome. Imaging technologies now show not only the physical size, shape, and location of cancer tissue but can also show the function of the tissue. Thus, doctors may apply a treatment targeting the abnormal cells that make up the cancer tissue and be able to see within 24 to 48 hours whether the treatment is altering function in the expected way. Knowledge networking through computers in real time means scientists and doctors working across the country at the 60 centers sponsored by the National Cancer Institute can share what they have learned. This will be particularly valuable with rare forms of cancer as doctors will pool their experience with patients being treated in different centers; and

            Whereas, Tremendous advances in the treatment and cure of cancer have been achieved in the past 35 years and this nation has never shied away from bold goals to advance science and technology. The Director of the National Cancer Institute has shown great leadership, enthusiasm, and optimism for being able to harness what we know and catapult the scientific and clinical communities forward through the final stage of the battle against cancer; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That we memorialize Congress to support the National Cancer Institute's plan to eliminate suffering and death from cancer by the year 2015; and be it further

            Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.